Stone Groove #29 - Sonar Live @ Charleston Fashion Week 2011

email: get@spacedinvaders.net

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Designers: House of Sage

Cody Sai

Veritee Hill

Anjelika Krishna

Thea Canlas

Click the links in the podcast to go directly to their site.

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Tracklisting:

Stevie Wonder-I Wish (Qdup Remix)

A. Skillz vs. Beat Vandals-Blowin Up

Michael Jackson- I Wanna Be Where You Are (Dallas Austin Remix)

Beat Vandals-Sunshine

Featurecast-One More

A. Skillz-Funky Sounds

All Good Funk Alliance-Avance!

Featurecast-Disco Diesel

Yosaku-Ain’t It Funky

Much love to all that listen to the Stone Groove! Keep diggin those crates till the next episode.

What are you eating for breakfast? How about some biscuits n gravy? I’m serving up a blend of funk and rap in this delicious podcast. This is the first podcast I recorded using The Bridge. I figured since Serato and Ableton created something so good together, I could serve up some mixes that would go together like some good southern comfort food. You’ll hear a lot of party breaks in this but it holds true to what the Stone Groove is all about, old school funk and soul. Let me know what you think about the mix. As always link to the podcast on iTunes is after the jump.

Download Biscuits N Gravy from iTunes

Download Biscuits N Gravy right from the source

I wanted to start 2011 off with a stone solid Funk Friday track. I’ll admit I didn’t dig to the dusty section of my closet or reach to the ends of the Earth to find this one. However, despite it not being the rarest selection out there, this track will take you on an amazing funk odyssey to the edge of the galaxy and back again. As always here’s a little knowledge on the artists themselves.

Slave was an Ohio based funk group lead by Steve Washington. Who’s Steve Washington you ask? Well he’s the nephew of Ralph Middlebrook of the Ohio Players.  Slave preformed some very gritty and hard edged funk and it’s no secret once you listen to this track how the tracks father “Slide” topped the singles charts in 1977 which helped bring their self titled album to number 6 on the U.S. R&B chart.

“Son of Slide” can almost be considered an instrumental version of “Slide.” However, after listening to both tracks one can hear that the bass line in “Son of Slide” is more prominent and chunky. “Son” also features a hypnotic chant at the end softly alerting and assuring that dancers can, “Slide with me till morning.” It’s a shame that part of the song is only a few seconds long. I’m sure any DJ can play that part at least three minutes and get away with it. (Thank you looping function in Serato!)  The guitar solo in the middle of the track is set to power any funk mothership throughout hyperspace and cruising speeds are brought to you by the horn section. No wonder why Tribe Called Quest sampled the hell out of this on their People’s Instinctive Travels “Go Ahead in the Rain.” All in all, this track embodies what Funk Friday is all about. Don’t sleep on this track.

I felt like getting back to a more traditional Soulful Sunday post today. This album from Brother to Brother has got some groovy tracks on it, but I wanted to point out the title track “In the Bottle” which has a very particular jazzy groove and the lyrics still have relevance today. The sweet flanged-out vocals really add to the piece by recanting the lyrics in a pseudo club chant style. What might come as a surprise to folks listening to this is that this track is actually a cover of a Gil Scott Heron’s “In the Bottle” and even contains a similar flute solo like Heron’s.

This track has been getting a lot of reworks done as of late. The most notable is the rework done by Yosaku & DJ Day titled “The Bottle” on the BSTRD BOOTS label. (I have included the tack down at the bottom for your listening pleasure.)

“In the Bottle” is a must have in any DJs crate if they need just a solid groove early on in the evening. I don’t believe that it is a floor filler, but in many cases it’s going to get people’s heads nodding.

Brother to Brother - In the Bottle

Gil Scott Heron - In the Bottle

Yosaku & DJ Day - The Bottle
Yosaku & DJ Day - The Bottle (BSTRD BOOTS) by yosaku

Yo everyone, it’s that time of year when all the radio stations and department stores are playing all the commercial tunes featuring some contemporary artist R&Bing every Christmas song memory you have. If you are like me then you are fed up with the junk and you want to replace your Christmas playlist with some holiday funk! Hit the jump to download the Stone Groove Christmas Mix 2010.

Download the Stone Groove Christmas Mix 2010 from iTunes

Stone Groove Christmas Mix 2010 Track List:

1. Run DMC - Christmas in Hollis
2. Milly & Silly - Gettin Down for Christmas
3. Dana Dane - Dana Dane is Coming to Town
4. Soul Saints Orchestra - Santa’s Got a Bag of Soul
5. Disco Four - He’s Santa Claus
6. Sweet Tee - Let the Jingle Bells Rock
7. Jimmy Reed - Christmas Present Blues
8. Electric Jungle - Funky Funky Christmas
9. James Brown - Soulful Christmas
10. J.D. McDonald - Boogaloo Santa Claus

I’m still on the “Christmas songs that don’t suck” mood. For this Soulful Sunday I present to you a James Brown track off of his “Funky Christmas” album that was released in 1995. Unlike the loud talking, direction giving Brown that we know and love from the early days, this song goes back to his crooning days. It has that 50’s big band sort of rhythm and blues feel. Take a listen and let us know what you feel.

One particular gem on this album was from a little known funk artist named J.D. McDonald. In fact, Google searching his name will yield bathroom and hygiene products.  I really wish that there was some liner notes or something that can trace the history of this guy. So, I can’t give you much history of the track.

If you need something to spice up your dulling Christmas party or just need something to shake up your daily commercial Christmas songs sung by Mariah Carey or Miley Cyrus, then this is the perfect track! The drums are like just cooked stove top Jiffy Pop. The bass line adds a buttery smoothness (almost feeling a little overpowering at times.), and the yelling vocals definitely conjure up a funky dancing, boogaloo breakin Santa Claus. Santa apparently even stops boogalooing to do the funky chicken. Hit the jump for the track.

If this song was real, how much cooler would department store Santas would be if the requirement was to boogaloo like Boogaloo Sam.

Link to J.D. McDonald - Boogaloo Santa Claus

Influenced by the DMC-12′s aerodynamic design and trademark characteristics, Nike reinterpreted the car’s sleek stainless steel exterior into a matte silver, no-sew constructed upper while also taking cues from the gull-wing doors on the bottom eyestay. The shoe’s outsole references the Delorean’s tail lights and the DMC-12′s rear window shades reappear as graphic lines on the heel replacing the traditional stitches. Meanwhile, the Belfast stamp on the tongue is a nod to the Irish factory that originally produced the vehicle.

As you can guess they’re already sold out Store.Nike.com. So be prepared to see a bunch of folks trying to sell them for crazy amounts of cash.

Hit the jump for more pictures.

DMC x Nike 6.0 DeLorean Dunk (hypebeast)

This week’s Soulful Sunday track goes back to the late sixties. You might have recently heard this track sampled by MF Doom on the track “Old School.” (I have it below for comparison.) It was difficult to choose one track off this album because there was so many stellar arrangements on it. However, most of the other tracks like “The Serpent” and “Spinning Wheel” are more jazzy and I didn’t feel it fit in for Soulful Sunday.

You can hear the opening break of this song instantly grab your attention and I’m sure some of the b-boy readers of this have already started to nod their heads. The piano breakdown and solo is one of the most uplifting parts of this track. Once you feel that this gets a little repetitive Mansfield tastefully switches it up to the piano and brings back the horns for one final call. Truly one of Keith Mansfield’s best works.

MF Doom (feat. Talib Kweli) “Old School”

Bobby Byrd will probably be best known for his association with James Brown. However, Byrd had many successful years as a solo artist and with other groups. “If You Don’t Work” is one of Byrd’s early tracks that I feel didn’t get the same fame as “Hot Pants.” (After all, “Hot Pants” was sampled by nearly every rap artist in the late 80’s and 90’s.)

“If You Don’t Work” is a superb funk track with a pretty straight forward message. The lyrics aren’t complicated but they hold true even for today. The simple guitar riff throughout the song really keeps your attention and carries the track. The horns give it that classic James Brown/Bobby Byrd flavor. The drums keep your feet moving. Perfect track for Funk Friday.

See more info on the 7″ on Discogs

I’ve been on a slow-mo disco edit tip as of late and wanted to share a little gem that I uncovered digging around the interwebs. This is a great edit from the Super Value crew. The album and track don’t have names to them, but the snippet of music comes from Gabor Szabo’s 1976 mellow track “Keep Smilin’.” This smooth edit is cleverly done by using a simple haunting repeat of the bridge in Szabo’s track. If you can’t tell it sounds very similar to WIlliam DeVaughn’s chorus in “Be Thankful For What You Got.” “Keep Smilin’” is what a disco edit should be. Smooth, mellow, and necessary, especially in a time when disco edits are made to just make them. This track is a perfect slow burner and compliments any summer deck chair lounging.

Buy the 12″ from Juno Records

Unknown Artist - Keep Smilin’

Gabor Szabo - “Keep Smilin”

Doc Severinsen - I Wanna Be With You (DJ Harvey Edit) by Disco Tech

Only 1000 pressings of this coming out. Better buy doubles.

Prince Fatty - Shimmy Shimmy Ya by GOMWAB

I’ve been on this track for a minute now. But I have yet to play it live. It sat in my collection of 7″ and I recently started to play this track again in my bedroom sets. Prince Fatty has been doing many dance hall renditions of popular rap tracks for a few years. I don’t think I really need to introduce you to the original ODB track. We all know this track. We all love this track. This track is definitely going to be getting more play in my live sets. What do you all feel about the track.

Buy the 7″ single from Turntable Lab

The discovery of phenomenal or rare music in the dustiest thrift store, record shop, or warehouse is one thing that makes being a DJ rewarding. It is one of the greatest feelings to come out of a record store, covered in dust, triumphantly wielding one or two rare gems that you painstakingly found that many people passed up. However, in our ever increasing digital music world, it is getting harder and harder to find digital gems that are buried within the ever growing landfill of music that is on the World Wide Web. And it is also rare when you find a digital gem that makes you feel the same as a hard days worth of dusty crate digging.

I stumbled across Kuroioto – Iro Iro album from a seemingly useless search link from Google. The link was not even relevant to what I was searching for, but a statement in the link caught my eye. In the link it stated, “… you like Dilla… Japanese hip-hop instrumentals.” So I had to click and was brought to some forum, I clicked around in there and was eventually brought to this web page where I discovered probably one of the best instrumental hip-hop albums that I have ever heard. I didn’t know this at the time that this album was going to be amazing.

Iro Iro is an amazing piece of underground work that contains many recognizable 60’s and 70’s funk and soul samples, mixed and blended with an ethereal jazzy flow into ten superb, head noddingly smooth tracks. My favorite track on the album is a piece called, “Aka” that contains samples of one of my most favorite tracks of all time, Kool and the Gang’s “Summer Madness.” Each track is noteworthy and this album is definitely worth having in any collection.

The interesting thing about this album is it has never been pressed into an LP or has it ever been distributed by a label. In fact, Kuroioto is not even Japanese. I did a little recon work on who this artist was and here’s what I found. Kuroioto is actually a student at Michigan State University. He posted this whole album for free on BandCamp.com and “… the album is an expression of what I go through in a week as well as the colors that affect my emotions and experiences during that week.” That’s all I can find out about Kuroioto. Big ups to whomever this cat is and hopefully we’ll hear more from him in the future.

Download Kuroioto - Iro Iro from BandCamp

Check out Kuroioto on MySpace

Mike Relm Remixes Old Spice (via relmvision)

DIPT NYC® launches their much anticipated Summer X Collection. The collection has three T-Shirt designs available. Check out the DIPT NYC Site for more details.

DIPT NYC® SUMMER X’ LOOK BOOK (DIPTNYC.COM)(HD) from The Ice Cream Man on Vimeo.

This is a video of a bear at the Hiroshima Zoo named Cloud. They need to cast this bear in a movie or something soon! I’d watch a full hour and a half of this.

It took me a minute to post this up but here’s my latest mix. It’s got just a jazzy flow to it. Overall I feel it is a decent mix. Let me know what you think about it. The tracklisting is below. Listen to it on iTunes or on SoundCloud

The Stone Groove - DJ Sonar - May 15th 2010 Mix by spacedinvaders

May 15th, 2010 Mix
mixed by: Sonar

Jazz Con Bazz - Da Huzle
People Under The Stairs - Suite For Beaver (Part 1)
Tony D - Piano Grand
Smoke No Bones - Lyrics and Vibes
Ta’Raach - Baaby
L-Fudge - Liquid (Instrumental)
Mr. Scruff - How Sweet It Is
Mass Influence - A Yo! Atlanta Ya On
UMOD - U Better Recognise
DJ Numark & DJ Pomo - The Way I Think

That bass player just paved the way for the 8 minute mark on this video:

RIP! Thanks for all that you have given us in the world of music and fashion.

DJ Birdflu took the liberty of hooking up a cassette tape deck in the Charleston Fashion Week “Style Lounge” and recording a portion of his set that set the tone for the rest of fashion week. (For those young readers of the blog who have not seen a cassette tape here’s what one is.) I was very excited that Birdflu asked me to put this up on the Stone Groove Podcast. He did an awesome set for the whole time he was in the style lounge. Anyway, I did not do anything to the audio except take it straight from the tape to .mp3. So you will hear some tape crackle and noise, but that just adds to the authenticity of a real vinyl DJ like Birdflu.

Birdflu - Rockin Alpaca Socks in the Style Lounge (Straight to Tape) by spacedinvaders

Track List:

1. Presto - Beautiful Thing
2. RjD2 - Here’s What’s Left
3. Afu Ra - Whirlwind Thru Cities Instrumental
4. Lords of the Underground - Tick Tock (Rumblin Remix) Instrumental
5. KRS-One - MCs Act Like They Don’t Know
6. People Under the Stairs - Acid Raindrops Instrumental
7. Redman and Method Man - How High Acapella
8. Nas - The World Is Yours (Q-Tip Mix)
9. The Pharcyde - Drop (Beatminerz Remix) Instrumental
10. A Tribe Called Quest - Check the Rhime Instrumental
11. Blacksheep - Without a Doubt (Salaam’s Mix)
12. Common - Ressurection Instrumental

Found a very interesting way to use wood glue to clean the dust, debris, and other sorts of crud out of your old LPs. The picture above is from the Audio Karma website and shows a before and after shot from one audio-gear enthusiast while testing the wood glue cleaning method. The results speak for themselves. Here is a link to the forum posting on Audio Karma. Upon further googling there is actually this video showing the wood glue method.

Peep the storyline to this movie here. I’m not kidding you it’s about bisexuals, cocaine, UFO’s and fashion shoots.

DJ Sonar drops some chill head nod jams in this installment of the Stone Groove Podcast. Click on the picture above to get it from iTunes. Or listen to it from our SoundCloud below.

The Stone Groove - DJ Sonar - Just Some Chill Head Nod by spacedinvaders

Track Listing:

1. Gabor Szabo - San Franciscan Nights
2. People Under The Stairs - San Francisco Knights
3. Slum Village - The Look of Love
4. Stephen Marley - You’re Gonna Leave
5. RJD2 - Work
6. Mr. Scruff - So Long
7. Kushti - Breaking Rocks
8. Gangstarr - My Advice 2 U
9. Slick Rick - All Alone (No One To Be With)
10. A Tribe Called Quest - Get A Hold
11. Common - I Used to Love H.E.R.
12. Waajeed - Right Here (Remix)
13. Slum Village - Fan-Tas-tic pt.1
14. Jazz Not Jazz - Jungle Funk
15. Universal Joint - Sharkbite
16. Large Professor - IJUSWANNACHILL

Copyright Criminals - Trailer from IndiePix on Vimeo.